Disturbed by Newspapers

2004-11-14

Category:politics

There were two stories in the Saturday November 13th Cedar Rapids Gazette that caught my attention. You see, there are some things in the world that rational people take for granted. When somebody engages in activities that are counter to what you think they should be doing, it just catches ones eye.

The first story, from the Associated Press, involved Attorney General John Ashcroft. In the article he is quoted, "The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war." Though I realize that some people may agree or disagree with judicial decisions, one of the main features of our federal government is the Checks and Balances system.

Our executive, legislative, and judicial branches have authority to keep each other from doing things that are a bit wacky. It is the function of those judges to tell the president and his people that they've pushed the limit of their authority. If the executive branch feels that this is an error, they can get the legislative branch to back them up and deal with the situation. None of the branches is to have greater power than the other.

It's typical of this attorney general to not understand the larger picture. That's why I am so glad to say good-bye to Mr. Ashcroft and the horse he rode in on.

The second story came from Knight Ridder Newspapers with a dateline Seoul South Korea. It seems we have something called North Korean Human Rights Act. It was signed into law back in October. It was a good thing in general.

The law basically gives funding and some infrastructure support for subversive activities in North Korea. The current result of the law is that they're smuggling tiny radios into North Korea. Next, they'll direct radio broadcasts into North Korea so that the oppressed peoples there can get jiggy with it.

If you've read my writings semi-regularly, you'll know that I prefer dealing with enemies by arming their internal revolutionaries rather that by direct confrontation. It's good to do things in a sneaky way. Let the locals take the brunt of fighting our mutual enemies because it's their country.

However, when you start inciting subversive activities in a nation run by an unstable dictator with nuclear weapons capability, you should probably do so secretly. The key word in that whole sentence is secret. That means you shouldn't tell people, especially the leader of that country.

The article has quotes from an assortment of people. This means that before the newspapers printed everything publicly, a bunch of people already knew about the activities. That's no way to be running secret subversive activities in foreign countries, you know, I'm just saying.

That's the end of this particular gripe session. The newspaper and television news never ceases to confound me. I just don't know why people do the things they do.